H&M: share slumps as 2024 margin target appears tricky

(CercleFinance.com) - H&M said on Thursday that it still expects to achieve its target of a 10% operating margin for the current financial year, but warned that the task would not be easy due to a number of unfavoUrable factors.


This morning the Swedish clothing group announced that its Q2 sales had risen by 3% to 59.6bn SEK (to end-May).

Operating profit was 7.1bn SEK, compared with 4.7bn SEK a year earlier, giving an operating margin of 11.9%, compared with 8.2% for the same period last year.

however, its H1 margin was 8.1%, well short of the 10% target the clothing manufacturer has set for the year.

Management explains that business conditions have tightened, particularly regarding the purchase of raw materials, and that these negative factors are likely to weigh more heavily than expected in H2.

H&M adds that its sales are expected to fall by 6% in local currencies in June, due both to an unfavourable comparison basis and the "unstable" weather at the beginning of summer in its main markets.

Following these announcements, the share price slumped almost 13% on Thursday morning in early trading on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.


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